Carob-Almond Wafers & What I Ate Yesterday

Happy Halloween and happy last day of Vegan Mofo 2012! I ended up with a total of 13 entries which, unfortunately, did not beat my record from last year, but I had a pretty good excuse this year. I liked the theme I chose of Cancer-Fighting Foods, you can see a list of all my posts by clicking here. Next year’s goal will be to post at least 15 times and to pick another cool theme and maybe stick with it a little better. I think it’s such a cool concept to bring together the vegan community and I’m so proud to be a part of it.

Today is What I Ate Wednesdays where I post a photo journal of everything I ate yesterday. I started off with a green smoothie using a blend of collard greens and spinach as the veggie component (this is my favorite recipe, I just substituted the watercress for the collards and spinach). As you can see, I maximize my Vitamix capacity and I usually end up with leftovers for the next day. In other words, between Alan and me, this much makes 4 good-sized smoothies:

I have found myself reducing my portion size just a little bit since I lost a little bit of weight before my surgery and my stomach size is appropriately smaller. I find this amount is enough to fuel my morning workout but not too much that I’m not hungry for lunch:

Even as we start to get cooler mornings here in California, I love a cold, refreshing smoothie for breakfast. I usually just put on an extra jacket after I drink it until I warm back up.

Lunch yesterday was a big salad with romaine, tempeh, chickpeas, jicama, onion, quinoa, tomatoes, pine nuts and some of Dr. Fuhrman’s Almond Balsamic Dressing:

For dessert, I had an Asian pear and about 3 tablespoons of almond butter:

I had a community lecture to attend last night after dinner, so I made something very simple which was just steamed kale topped with water-sauted mushrooms, onions, garlic and black beans. First, I steamed the kale:

Then, in a separate pan, I just heated up a teensy bit of water and added the onions and mushrooms:

During the last few minutes, I added the garlic, black beans and just a touch of tamari for flavor. I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top so it would look pretty:

How amazingly simple is that?!? I need to make more meals like this, it came together in 15 minutes.

For dessert, I had something special that was fresh out of the dehydrator. This is the type of healthy dessert that I was referring to in my discussion of sugar addiction in Wednesday’s post. It’s inspired by a recipe I found in the Vegan for the Holidays cookbook that I’m giving away on my blog this Friday (you can enter here). Zel’s recipe is called Choco-Wafers and uses walnuts, dates, raisins and cocoa powder. I wanted to make my own version using almonds and carob so that’s what I did.

I used the food processor to mix together almonds, dates, currants, water and carob:

I used these dates, by the way, they are already pitted for lazy busy people:

I then spread the mixture thinly on a piece of parchment paper set in a small baking sheet:

I put the batter on the paper onto a dehydrator tray and scored the batter into wafers:

I dehydrated these at 115 degrees for 10 hours and then flipped them, taking them off the paper, and dehydrated them for another 10 hours on the other side:

They ended up being crunchy, sweet and very waferish!

Here’s the recipe:

I ended up eating about 5 wafers for dessert last night:

Ideally, I think these wafers served with some fruit would be a great dessert, maybe even something I’ll consider for the holidays this year. The wafers are not overly sweet, but they definitely are an indulgence, albeit a healthy one.

Before I end this post for today, I had a few people ask me questions about my history of sugar addiction and so I just wanted to say that it’s been a lifelong struggle for me. In fact, one of my earliest memories goes back to when I was probably 5 years old and I raided the pantry for some candy that I knew my parents had hidden from me. Of course, I got caught and then I lied about it and got in even more trouble which probably was the start of the good food/bad food scenario for me that I’ve also struggled with my whole life.

But, as far as the real sugar addiction, I can’t say when all that started except that there must be something in my brain that gravitates toward sugar and then has a problem controlling the urge to have more. If there is any truth to people having addictive tendencies, then I am for sure one of those people. This topic is not something I’ve studied in depth or have any professional experience with whatsoever, it’s just kind of my gut feeling for what is going on.

That’s enough armchair psychology for a Wednesday morning for me… have a great day and I’ll see you back here on Friday with some exciting news from the world of healthy vegan food!

Tagged as: almonds, carob, currants, dates